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The Hebitians were the first civilization to rise on Cardassia. They were a sophisticated, sustainable, self-sufficient society and worshiped the deity Oralius. The Hebitian society eventually fell when Cardassia suffered catastrophic climate change, the rainforests and grasslands transformed into desert and scrubland with just one patch of the ancient rainforest surviving the climate change in the Ba'aten Peninsula. Disease killed millions and the people lost their faith becoming militaristic and expansionist - the Cardassians (DS9novel: A Stitch in Time).

It was known that during the old times, portions of the Western Hemisphere was covered with lush green, thick forests with heavy rainfall covering the region. However, an atmospheric calamity of unknown origin befell the planet at the time, which led to centuries of drought. The remaining forests were cut down by shortsightedness with the once fertile soil had withdrawn to deep silty black top soil due to a single generation of overfarming. This led to the well known parched sands that surrounded the periphery of the cities bringing about a world full of deserts where there had once been rain forests. The once verdant forests were forgotten by latter generation Cardassians though members of the Oralian Way had records of it present within the Recitations that showed the paradise their home world once was. (DS9 - Terok Nornovel: Dawn of the Eagles)

At the end of the Dominion War in retaliation for the Cardassians betrayal, the Dominion decimated much of Cardassia resulting in billions of deaths and the destruction of much of the infrastructure. The clean up process took a great deal of time and there were still corpses on the streets for weeks after the Dominion withdrawal. A democratic government led by Alon Ghemor rose up in the aftermath. (DS9episode: "What You Leave Behind", DS9novel: A Stitch in Time)

In 2377 Gul Kentar amassed a large military force, and while the bulk of the Federation's fleet was in the Delta Quadrant conducting a counter attack in response to a recent Borg incursion, made a sneak attack on the Federation's reserve fleet in the Pearl Nebula. This provoked the Klingon Empire to launch a campaign against the Cardassian forces under Kentar. After a number of offensives the Klingons pushed Kentar's forces all the way back to the Cardassia system and took control of Cardassia Prime and the rest of the planets in the system. With Kentar's forces crushed the Cardassian leadership requested a truce, which was negotiated by Chancellor Martok himself, before the Klingon forces moved out of the system in pursuit of last remnants of Gul Kentar's rebellion in the Hubrik system. (TNGvideo game: Armada II)